Even keen Rome observers missed the speech that Pope Francis gave to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity last week. That is forgivable: keeping up with the abuse crisis has become a full-time job. Besides, much else was competing for reporters’ attention: the historic China deal, a hectic papal visit to the Baltic states and preparations for this month’s youth synod.
In his address, the Pope reflected on how Catholics should respond to one of the most important developments in the Christian world in the past century: the rise of Pentecostalism. Pentecostals are a growing force in the Americas and Africa, and number some 300 million worldwide.
In some places, Pentecostalism has expanded at the expense of Catholicism. According to a Pew Research Center survey in 2014, tens of millions of Latin Americans have left the Catholic Church in recent decades for Pentecostal Christianity. This dynamic faith spread from the United States in the early 20th century. With its emphasis on miraculous healing and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it took off. Crucially, US missionaries quickly trained local pastors. According to Latin America expert Andrew Chesnut, the Assemblies of God – Brazil’s largest Pentecostal denomination – was fully under Brazilian control by 1930. Today, the denomination has up to 12 million members in Brazil and three million in the US. “Pentecostal is now overwhelmingly anchored in Latin America, rather than the United States,” Chesnut says.
In his address, Pope Francis admitted to an early prejudice against the Pentecostal style of worship. He recalled that, as provincial of the Society of Jesus in Argentina in the 1970s, he had forbidden Jesuits from forming ties with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He had compared the spontaneous atmosphere at charismatic prayer meetings to that of samba schools. But later, as a bishop in Buenos Aires, he helped them to hold Masses in the cathedral. He implied that every Catholic had something to learn from the charismatic movement.
But it is one thing to accept charismatic Catholics and another to embrace Pentecostals who are aggressively poaching Catholics. “The fact that more than a few Catholic faithful are attracted to these communities is a source of friction,” the Pope acknowledged. But he argued that it “can become, for our part, a matter of personal examination and pastoral renewal”.
How can “friction” lead to renewal? Francis suggested that Catholics should invite Pentecostals to take part in shared activities such as “prayer, listening to the Word of God, service to the needy, the proclamation of the Gospel [and] the defence of the dignity of the person and of human life”.
This approach will not, it must be said, come naturally to many Catholics. The Pope knows this, and that is why throughout his address he urged Catholics to focus anew on the Holy Spirit. The prospects for unity among Catholics and Pentecostals are, on the face of it, slim. But Francis argued that if both groups become attuned to the Spirit then they will discover a “true unity, which is not uniformity”.
Perhaps that vision will be realised in the distant future. But for now it is significant that the Pope has called for a truce in the struggle between Catholics and Pentecostals.
Crumbs of comfort
The news that Fernando Karadima, the figure at the centre of Chile’s continuing saga of abuse and its subsequent cover-up, has been removed from the priesthood comes as a footnote to the whole sorry tale.
A priest once ordained is a priest forever, like Melchizedek of old. However, for a variety of reasons, a man can incur what canon law terms “loss of the clerical state”, or what newspapers prefer to call being “defrocked”. A priest who wishes to marry, for example, can ask the Church to be relieved of the obligations of being a priest. If the Vatican grants this, it is clearly a favour. But in other cases, such as when a man behaves in an immoral manner, and is deprived of the rights and duties of the priesthood as a result, loss of the clerical state is clearly a punishment. This is the case with Karadima, who has already been sentenced to a life of prayer and penance.
That Karadima has been “defrocked” may strike people as too little too late. In the Chilean scandal the Vatican has been consistently playing catch-up, having, among other things, defended Karadima’s protégé, Bishop Juan Barros, for three years, before accepting his resignation from the Diocese of Osorno. Karadima should have been dismissed years ago. Swift action might have assuaged lay anger; coming now, it merely confirms that the Vatican is out of touch with popular opinion.
There is one crumb of comfort, however. Karadima’s expulsion from the priesthood could be a sign that others, such as Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, may be about to be removed from the clerical state.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.